Order Code 98-777 GOV
Updated February 20, 2001
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
The House Amendment Tree
Walter J. Oleszek
Senior Specialist
Government and Finance Division
The House amendment “tree” is a chart that depicts the maximum number and types
of amendments that may be offered to a measure before any amendment is voted upon.
This diagram is outlined in various sources, including the 1996 summary compilation of
House precedents, titled House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and
Procedures of the House. The amendment tree generally indicates, for instance, the
relationship of one amendment to another and the sequence of voting on amendments. For
further detail about amendments, such as first degree or second degree, and the amending
process in general, see CRS Report 98-613 GOV, Amendments in the House: Types and
Forms, and CRS Report 98-439 GOV, Amendment Process in the Committee of the
Whole.
The amendment tree and its accompanying “limbs” grow from various parliamentary
principles and precedents. House Rule XVI, clause 6, identifies the four amendments (or
motions) that characterize the basic amendment tree; it is portrayed in the chart on the next
page. Under Rule XVI, four amendments may be pending simultaneously to the text of
a measure: (1) an amendment to the pending bill; (2) a perfecting amendment to that
amendment; (3) a substitute amendment, which strikes all of amendment #1 and replaces
it with different language; and (4) a perfecting amendment to the substitute.
Three other aspects of the amending process merit mention. They are:
! The amendment to the original measure is offered first; thereafter, there
is no rule that regulates what amendment is to come next. It could either
be a perfecting amendment or a substitute amendment. The substitute, of
course, must be proposed before an amendment to it is in order.
! As stated in Rule XVI, only one amendment to an amendment and one
amendment to a substitute is in order at any one time. However, once an
amendment to the original amendment or to the substitute is disposed of
either by rejection or incorporation, both generally remain open to further
perfecting amendments.
! Amendments are voted on in a definite order. Amendments to the
original amendment are voted on first; amendments to the substitute are
voted on next; then the substitute is voted on; and, finally, the original
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

---

CRS-2
amendment is voted on. If the substitute is agreed to, the last vote is on
the amendment, as amended.

---